Excuses, excuses...

An excuse you say!?? How many times I have I told members- "no need to make excuses- you have the power to get back on track- right now"? Well, that advice aside, I have what I think is a valid excuse-- but not for my program--rather, for slowing down my blogging lately. I'm getting married in less than a week! I'm heading out of town to the Northeast on Friday morning, and then am off for a whirlwind of wedding, family time, and then the (gulp) 100-mile hike! So, needless to say, I've been a delinquent blogger, and I don't expect to get back on here until early August. However, you can rest assured that when I do come back to blogging, that I'll have quite the story to share from our little adventure. Who knows, I may even have fresh perspectives as a... errrrr... "married woman"!

Some might ask- are you really going to follow the plan at your wedding?!? Well, let's just say that I'll be using all of those 35 weekly points allowance, plus a hefty dose of activity points-- however, I'm the one who got to select the menu-- so, yes, I am going to follow the plan! Hint: we aren't having just cake- I'll be enjoying some fresh berry sorbet as my dessert. Yummmm....

Have a wonderful rest of July- enjoy the moment, and continue to work towards those goals. Oh- and for those of you in my Westminster meetings- never fear- an experienced and knowledgeable substitute leader will inspire and lead you through the next 4 weeks!

~Braelin

Happy Belated 4th- Creating New Traditions

So often our holidays revolve around food- and that's probably not going to change anytime soon. Over the last year however, I've made a concerted effort to create new traditions that involve activity. Some have been simple- taking a walk at Thanksgiving, going skiing at the December holidays, etc. etc. I must say that I've really outdone myself with 4th of July however.

In preparation for our "honeymoon hike" (for anyone who doesn't know, I'm getting married later this month and instead of a traditional honeymoon we are hiking 100 miles of the Colorado Trail- a long distance hiking trail that spans from Denver to Durango), we set out on a trial run on Friday morning. Although I enjoy hiking and have done some (one?) true backcountry trips in the past, our 100 miles of the Colorado trail will be quite the challenge. So, we decided to do segments 4 + 5 of the trail (we will be doing 6 -10 later in the month) for a 4th of July celebration. Wow! This was a relatively ambitious plan for our first main hike out of the season- 30 miles over 3 days. I'm sore and I'm slightly blistered, but I'm certainly proud, pleased, and feeling pretty independent of other Independence Day traditions.

About 1/2 way through the second day of the hike, M. suggested that we make doing a 3-day backpacking trip on 4th of July weekend an annual tradition. He didn't even know about my covert operation to transform holiday traditions into active occasions- reading my mind- what a guy! Although I'll admit that I did miss seeing fireworks (I was hopeful that we'd be able to see some from where we were camped, but this wasn't the case), the views that I saw this 4th of July were just as awe-inspiring as any fireworks display!

Although I'm not sure that this tradition would be a fit for every family- I do encourage everyone to find new ways to create fun active festivities with family and friends around the holidays. Just last week in my meetings I heard of members bringing their bikes to a park where fireworks will be shown, walking in a Independence Day 5K, biking to a park for a picnic, and making a habit of walking to the house where their annual cook-out takes place. All great ideas!